Weighing In
I read an article a while back written by one of my favorite people in the healthy, holistic eating world, Geneen Roth. Her approach to emotional eating and "legalizing food" has been hugely inspiring to me. Check out her blog, www.geneenroth.com/notes_from_geneen/ In the article I'm thinking of, she keys into the unfortunate insanity and obsession so many of us have with the scale. Rather than being a tool to measure weight, she points out how often we use it as a measure of self-worth. She encourages people to relinquish the scale in an effort to recognize that we are all so much more than a number.
Obviously, it is true we add up to so much more than a number on the scale. No one human being's worth can be reduced to that. Recently however I had a conversation with a friend who rediscovered the value of her scale. Rather than use it as a tool to determine whether or not to feel good about herself, she's using it as the tool it was originally designed to be, one of several perfectly valid ways to measure her physical body weight.
Again, it comes down to the context and attitude with which we choose to relate to something. The scale is not inherently the enemy. Our minds are the enemy when we choose to use them that way. In the book, 'When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies', the authors point out how much we project our self-loathing and judgment onto our bodies, and in this case, onto the number on the scale. People who've been chronic dieters are so often actually afraid of the scale. They've made the scale another canvas upon which to paint a negative self-perception, turning the scale into the culprit. But it's the negative self-perception we need to work with and transform, not the scale. Think of the last time you weighed yourself and thought something bad about yourself. Being completely honest with yourself, did you even need the scale to "say" that nasty thing in your mind, or did the number on the scale simply become the convenient excuse to berate yourself?
If you're going to use the scale as evidence to prove how much you suck, then please stay off! But I invite you to use it instead to call yourself to a new level of self-love and self-acceptance. Let your fear of the scale be a call to be as loving with yourself as you possibly can be. Then when you're ready to use it FOR yourself, instead of AGAINST yourself, step on!
I weigh myself once or twice a week. It has helped me maintain my 70 lb. weightloss, by keeping track of the impact my eating habits are having on my body beyond what I may be aware of simply based on observation. I don't view it as a tool for self-recrimination. It simply provides a number on the scale that I use to make lighter food choices if the number goes up, and keep my diet steady when it goes down or stays the same.
In any weight loss journey, we each need to discover our own helpful tools. Maybe if we remove our judgment from the number on the scale and be more kind and loving with ourselves, we could actually find value in the practice of weighing ourselves again. Yes, you are so much more than a number, and because that is true, maybe there's a way to use that number to serve your goals, rather than self-judgement.
Regardless of whether or not you decide to use the scale, it's a powerful practice to create an affirmation or mantra for yourself that feeds you and fills you with self-love. For example, "I am lovable at any size and weight". Repeat it to yourself regularly so that the weight of your self-love and kindness re-balances the scales of your self-perception toward a more positive, loving, and generous one. Let this free you to move toward your weight-loss goals not IN ORDER TO be lovable, but rather as a gift to your body, because you ALREADY ARE lovable.
